Murphy paces Brandeis women again on Day 2 of WPI Invitational

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Rookie freestyle specialist Joanna Murphy (Sarasota, Fla./Riverview) led the way once again for the Brandeis women's swimming and diving team at WPI's Gompei Invitational today.

Murphy matched her top performance from the first day of action by finishing in third place in the mile freestyle. She covered the 1,650 yards in 18:07.48, just 3.3 seconds out of second place. Murphy also pitched in in the shorter events, taking sixth in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:06.18, and 28th in the 100 (58.99 seconds). Also earning points for coach Mike Kotch's team in the mile free was sophomore Theresa Gaffney (Braintree, Mass./Braintree), who came in 20th with a time fo 20:18.30.

The next-best performance for the Judges came from junior Gabby Drillich (Harrington Park, N.J. / Northern Valley Regional), who was 11th in the 400-yard individual medley (5:06.05) and 14th in the 200 butterfly (2:29.84). Sophomore Fallon Bushee (Malden, Mass. / Mystic Valley Regional Charter Sch.) reached two B finals in freestyle events, coming in 14th in the 200 (2:05.85) and 18th in the 100 (58.52 seconds).

Rounding out the Judges's scorers was sophomore Fay Laborio (Cranston, R.I./Cranston West), who was 27th in the 50 back (32.45 seconds) and 29th in the 100 (1:11.47).

Brandeis finished with 394 points to finish in eighth place at the meet. The Judges return to action on January 18 at home against Trinity.